


Doom Days

by HecticHelios



Category: Bastille (Band)
Genre: M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2019-02-08
Packaged: 2019-09-06 13:29:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 4,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16833553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HecticHelios/pseuds/HecticHelios
Summary: It’s the end of the world as we know it, but all Dan wants to do is party





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This doesn’t have an endgame so it might... not end. Officially.

‘You’re a fucking idiot, Dan,’ Kyle whispered harshly to the other man.

‘C’mon, it’s fine!’ Dan grinned before sprinting towards the wire fence and leaping at it. Kyle watched Dan scale the fence inelegantly and stumble when he jumped down the other side.

‘Fucking hell.’ Kyle followed suit.

Since the biggest media companies in the world had collapsed, society basically went with it. The streets were dangerous at night but all Dan wanted to do was experience the thrill of it all. Freed from a dead-end job near the bottom of the journalistic hierarchy, Dan revelled in the night. He knew the secret hot spots of the city, and was leading Kyle to one such place that night.

Kyle was the more cautious of the pair. He still had his job at his local pub, and didn’t particularly want to lose it galavanting to some hidden club with his idiot boyfriend.

‘You’re loving this, huh?’ Kyle asked Dan when he caught up. Dan simply nodded. ‘WWCOMMS falls apart and you find yourself with infinitely more free time, so you decide to go to illegal raves?’

‘End of the fucking world!’ Dan laughed. ‘What else is there to do?’

— — — — —

An abandoned mansion stood at the top of a hill. Dan found out about its existence when he was sent to check if the refurbishment - funded by the company he worked for - was going to plan. It wasn’t, and he had to lie his way out of an awkward meeting.

The mansion was home to several anti-government squatters, the group that called themselves Chaos Planet. They warned Dan to not bring anyone else back. Dan complied, not wanting to get on the bad side of a cult of anarchists in tie-dye.

The windows of the mansion were lit up that night, however. Music boomed out of the shell of a building.

‘Come on, Kyle,’ Dan said, pulling something from his pocket. ‘We gotta fit in.’

‘Wh-‘ Kyle started, only to be silenced by Dan’s kiss, his lips soft and gentle against Kyle’s rough ones.

‘Shhh.’ Dan had face paints (causing Kyle to sigh at the realisation) and was painting yellow and pink lines onto Kyle’s face, before turning the blue on himself.

‘Dan, what the hell are we doing? Honestly?’ Kyle asked, concerned about being dragged into a mansion with partying strangers.

‘My dear Kyle,’ Dan said, leading the way to the mansion’s door with Kyle’s hand in his, ‘this is the beginning of a fantastic night of celebrating the end of the world as we know it.


	2. Chapter 2

Kyle felt rather out of place, his black t-shirt and jeans among a sea of colour.

Dan was having the time of his life. Dancing with anyone who would look his way, Kyle had never seen the older man so happy.

Following Dan around like a concerned father, Kyle accidentally bumped shoulders with another man who didn’t seem to be raving as much as the other party-goers.

The tie-dye shirt gave away the affiliation to Chaos Planet immediately.

‘Ah, fuck, sorry!’ Kyle shouted over the music. ‘Just... trying to make sure my boyfriend doesn’t get too... lost...’

‘You with him?’ the other man asked, head jerking towards Dan.

‘Yeah? Why?’

The man in tie-dye said nothing, but moved towards Dan. Kyle followed, slightly panicked as the man took Dan aside to a quieter corner.

‘... for not bringing any of those idiot media blokes here,’ said the man, Kyle only catching the latter half of the sentence.

Dan nodded. ‘You’re right about the idiots part.’ The pair both laughed, but stopped when they saw the concerned Kyle.

‘You know each other?’ Kyle asked.

‘Kyle!’ Dan smiled. ‘This is Will. He’s one of Chaos Planet. Part of the group that organised this party. He’s not that bad, actually. I thought him and his mates wanted to kill me for finding them squatting here.’

Will shifted his weight and scratched the back of his head awkwardly. ‘Well... enough the night, you two. Be careful when you leave, of course. You know how it gets now. I’m going to find the others of my group.’

Dan sipped his drink and turned to Kyle once Will had left them. ‘So you know how Britney Spears did that head shaving thing when she had a break down?’

‘.... Yeah?’

‘Time for my break down.’

Dan slipped away from Kyle before the latter could react, and Kyle temporarily lost him in the crowd. A few minutes later, Kyle saw his boyfriend gestured to two men to convince them to shave his hair.

Kyle sighed. Dan was stubborn and there would be no stopping him from doing this, so Kyle simply watched from afar as Dan followed the two young men upstairs, and as Dan’s hair got really rather short in the span of seconds.

‘You look like a convict,’ Kyle joked when he was reunited with Dan.

‘Apocalypse films always have people with buzzcuts, like Mad Max or Stranger Things. It felt right.’

‘Stranger Things isn’t a-‘ Kyle couldn’t finish his sentence before Dan was off dancing again.


	3. Chapter 3

A few hours had passed and Kyle wanted to get home. He found Dan chatting to two other of the Chaos Planet group.

‘Kyle!’ Dan waved excitedly, drunk. ‘This... is Charlie and... Chris?’

The man with the long hair smiled at Kyle. ‘I... prefer Woody, but yeah, hi.’

Kyle smiled at the two men. ‘I should get him home.’

‘Yeah. You should,’ agreed the other man, Charlie, concerned.

‘C’mon, big boy,’ teased Kyle. He half-carried Dan out the mansion.

It took them longer to get home than it did to get to the party; Kyle had to find an alternate route that didn’t avoid jumping a fence, and keep away from the dangers of the night, and look after his drunken boyfriend.

‘Daniel... Campbell... Smith...’ Kyle sighed, pulling Dan into his house. ‘You... are a pain... in the ass.’

‘Not the first time you’ve said that,’ giggled Dan. Kyle half-threw Dan into the sofa and Dan fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the cushion.

‘G’night, Smith,’ Kyle said as he pulled a blanket over his lover. He planted a kiss on Dan’s cheek then went to bed himself.

— — — — —

Kyle woke up cold. He rolled over to discover Dan had moved into his bed overnight... and stole his duvet.

‘... Dan...’ groaned Kyle as he stole back some of his covers.

‘I think this is my worst hangover in years,’ Dan groaned back. He buried his head into Kyle’s chest.

‘How much do you remember?’

‘I remember getting my head shaved, at least,’ chuckled Dan quietly.

Kyle rubbed his hand over Dan’s shaved head. ‘Fuzzy.’

‘Shuddup.’


	4. Chapter 4

Dan recalled the first time he met Kyle. The bar Kyle worked at was the first one Dan could find after a bad day at work.

‘Whisky on the rocks, mate,’ grumbled a tired Dan as he loosened his tie and messed up his hair a bit.

‘You look like you need it,’ replied the young barman. ‘It’s on me.’

‘Cheers,’ mumbled Dan. He downed it quickly.

‘Fucking hell.’

‘Shit day in the world means a shit day when you’re a journalist.’ Dan shrugged. ‘Pour me another?’

So Dan got tipsy. And called the barman cute. And Kyle invited Dan round to his at the end his shift. The rest was history.

— — — — —

A loud bang snapped Dan back to attention. He didn’t remember the past few hours.

‘Wh...’ he started. He went to scratch the back of his neck to find his hands cuffed together. ‘Uh...’

Kyle had gone to work and Dan was bored so he went out alone. And drank too much.

He spent the rest of the journey to the station in silence, trying to slip the cuffs.

— — — — —

An exasperated Kyle arrived at the police station later that night.

‘I go to work for a few hours...’ he sighed as Dan hugged him. ‘What did they do you for?’

‘I dunno... drunken... stuff.’

Kyle led Dan out of the police station, hand in hand.

‘You know it’s dangerous out here at night now. You shouldn’t go out on your own.’

‘Maybe they took me in to keep me safe..?’ proposed Dan.

‘Nah. You can be an idiot when drunk. They let you go ‘cause they have bigger fish to fry,’ laughed Kyle gently.

‘I’d rather you do the arresting next time,’ muttered Dan.

Kyle blushed and hid his face in his scarf. ‘Shuddup.’


	5. Chapter 5

‘I’m gonna need to put a fucking child leash on you if you keep wandering off alone at night, Dan,’ Kyle said one night as they stumbled back into Kyle’s house.

‘You’d like that, wouldn’t you?’ poked Dan.

‘I’m serious, Daniel, it’s not safe out there. You nearly got mugged!’

‘Fucking fun though, innit? The rush.’

‘Christ alive. I told you not to get involved with a blood end-of-the-world cult.’

‘Woody, Charlie, and Will are not a cult,’ Dan pouted as he flopped onto the sofa.

‘Listen, something will happen if you keep going to an abandoned mansion alone at night,’ Kyle said softly, sitting besides his lover. ‘I’m trying... to keep you safe.’

‘... I know you are.’

— — — — —

The TV was playing back an old film Dan loved. Dan’s head was rested on Kyle’s shoulder.

‘You remember the exact reason WWCOMMS got fucked?’ Kyle asked.

Dan shrugged. ‘Money going to a bunch of illegal operations. Human trafficking and stuff, I think.’

‘Dodgy as hell.’

‘Yeah,’ agreed Dan. ‘And obviously they owned all the security shit so they didn’t get caught for ages.’

Kyle shuffled in his seat. ‘Kind of understand why that Chaos Planet lot were so happy about that place going down.’

‘Yeah. Apparently they’ve opposed it longer than anyone. Not everybody’s been arrested yet though.’

An uneasy silence fell between the two of them, the only noise from the television. They both knew that the still free WWCOMMS workers was part of the reason it wasn’t safe to go out alone at night. That, combined with increased gang violence and corrupted cops, Kyle really didn’t want Dan to go out alone.

Of course, like an unruly teenage, Dan had planned to go to another Chaos Planet rave whether Kyle liked it or not.


	6. Chapter 6

Dan would often find himself thinking about how much worse his nights were when he worked. How he would find himself at the bar Kyle worked most nights. He was thinking about his worst, worst night.

‘You should know better than to leave your drink unwatched,’ Kyle said softly as he helped Dan into the taxi. ‘I can’t always watch it for you...’

Dan flopped into the seat. Kyle disappeared for a moment to apologise again to his collogues and boss before slipping into the taxi next to his lover and strapping them both in.

The older man was seeing double, and everything sounded distant.

‘It was... a couple of seconds...’ he slurred.

‘I know, babe,’ Kyle squeezed Dan’s hand in his own. ‘But you know how it gets...’

Dan didn’t want to admit that he didn’t think this would ever happen to him, and the thoughts of what could have happened swam in his mind. Luckily he had Kyle. He always had Kyle.

‘Too much to drink, eh?’ joked the taxi driver.

‘Just drive!’ snipped Kyle.

When they finally reached Dan’s flat, Kyle guided his partner to the sofa and gave him a large glass of water.

‘You should be more careful with your drinks,’ Kyle said softly.

Dan looked Kyle in the eye. He kept opening his mouth to say things but words didn’t come out. Instead, he took a drink.

So as Dan spent his time at yet another Chaos Planet rave, he thought about that night. He thought about that night after an unfamiliar face handed him a drink. He thought about that night as his vision blurred, as someone he didn’t know guided him into a quiet part of the mansion, as he blacked out.

‘You should be more careful with your drinks,’ came the unfamiliar voice as Dan slid into oblivion.

— — — — —

The first thing Dan felt was water up his nose, in his throat, down his lungs.

The next thing he felt was the cold. He was so... cold.

He took a breath, a deeper breath then he’d ever had before. Air never felt so good.

Dan pulled himself up. A bathtub, in an old bathroom, in an abandoned mansion.

Standing up was when he felt the sharp, bitter pain. He almost passed out again when he saw the blood on his shirt, the blood dripping to the floor with the water.

‘Fuck... ahhh....’ he grasped his injury. ‘I’m a living cliche now, huh...?’

The mansion was quiet. The party had ended. Dan stumbled down the stairs, looking for someone, anyone. His phone was dead, more drowned than he.

‘Hey... Charlie... Woody... Will...? Please...’

Dan fell to one knee, groaning.

‘Dan? What are y- oh my god,’ came Woody’s voice. ‘Guys?!’

‘What the hell happened?’ asked Will when he saw the half-dead Dan.

‘Bloody... fucking white suits got in again, didn’t they?’ Woody spat, venom in his words. ‘Let’s get Dan warm and dry and not bleeding before we worry about that, though.’

Dan thought about how ironic it was that a company selling to the black market was uniformed in white during their operating days. He thought about the madness within the company that he worked for when the news got out. Most of the people at the lower levels knew nothing of it, naturally, but they were still forced to try to cover it up.

‘You used to work there, didn’t you?’ Woody asked the delirious Dan.

Dan nodded slowly. ‘I wasn’t anyone special. Didn’t get a nice suit from them,’ he laughed slightly before wincing in pain. ‘I kind of enjoyed watching WWCOMMS fall apart from the inside.’

‘I reckon someone’s holding a grudge, y’know,’ Woody said as he fixed a temporary bandage over Dan’s wound. ‘No white suited, WWCOMMS bastard comes here without a motive.’

Will sighed and nodded. ‘They’ve got in here before. My mate Dick went missing after a party of ours. We found out it was those media bastards but they shut us up. Too powerful. And then there’s the police. Half of them don’t give a shit.’

‘Party to forget...’ sighed Woody. ‘Vicious, bullshit cycle. Party, cops bust us, move, repeat. Cops pay to neutralise the trouble makers, WWCOMMS does what’s needed and then makes even more money from their fucking blood money.’

Dan was on the verge of passing out again. ‘I only came here for a dance to forget...’ Then he slipped back into unconsciousness.


	7. Chapter 7

Dan spent a couple of days in hospital. Despite losing an entire kidney, he was doing well. Kyle berated Dan about it, and the older man accepted it, feeling guilty for causing his partner so much worry.

Kyle had persuaded his boss at the bar to take on Dan as a bartender; it was easier to convince him after Kyle mentioned the shenanigans Dan got up to when bored. So the pair of them worked the bar most evenings, alleviating some worry from Kyle’s shoulders.

‘I need to get out,’ Dan said one afternoon.

‘We’re not raving or clubbing or whatever,’ Kyle said, not looking up from his ironing.

‘No, I just... want to go somewhere with you. Somewhere that’s not here or work or surrounded by strangers.’

A short silence hung in the air, only being broken by the sound of steam rising from the iron.

‘You ever driven full speed down country roads, Kyle?’

‘Dan, I can’t even drive.’

‘You wanna learn how to drive?’

‘We don’t own a car, Dan,’ sighed Kyle. ‘I would learn, but-‘

Dan silenced Kyle with a kiss on the lips. ‘Shhh. We can borrow a car.’

— — — — —

‘This is not what I had in mind when you said we could borrow a car!’ hissed Kyle at Dan in a quiet voice. The pair were ducked behind a low wall near an old warehouse where some of the local gangs would gather and Dan had his sights set on one of their cars.

‘C’mon... relax... We’ll be in and out. I’ve gotten good at hotwiring cars,’ Dan whispered, snipping his pliers in the air.

‘Where did you even learn to hotwire a car?’

‘Ch-‘

‘If you say “Chaos Planet” I am leaving.’

‘...’

Silence hung between the pair but Kyle broke any tension by smiling at Dan, then making a ‘go ahead’ motion with his head. Dan grinned back and the two of them slipped into the nearest car.

Kyle just watched in marvelled silence as Dan quickly pulled and fiddled with wires and soon the engine started up. Music started blaring as soon as the ignition was on and all the gathered gang members diverted their attention to the young couple.

‘Floor it, floor it, floor it!’ panicked Kyle. Dan slammed the car in reverse and then they were off, barely hearing the shouts behind them.

— — — — —

They drove for miles, away from the city, down to the country roads. Kyle couldn’t keep from laughing at what they’d just done.

The sun was about to set. Dan pulled over into an abandoned horse field. He climbed out the driver’s seat and then scrambled onto the car’s roof.

As Kyle got out, Dan patted the space besides him. ‘Come on. Get up here.’

‘I’m confused,’ Kyle said, standing there.

‘Sunset! Come on. I haven’t seen the sunset outside the city in years. I wanted to share it with you.’

Kyle smiled then climbed up to join the older man. Dan slung his arm around Kyle’s shoulders.

‘Never realised how pretty it gets,’ Kyle mumbled as the sub started to dip.

Dan nodded in agreement. ‘Hard to see it where we are in the city.’

They remained in comfortable silence as the sky turned from yellow to pink to orange and then finally to navy blue and black, stars speckling the sky like the freckles on Dan’s face in summertime.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Glory car but like Hardcore


	8. Chapter 8

Even the late shift at the bar didn’t keep Dan from wanting to go out at night.

Begrudgingly, Kyle had to make friends with the Chaos Planet boys to arrange for _someone_ to be with Dan during his shenanigans.

‘I’m sure you’re sensible enough to keep Dan away from the cops and gangs and whatever,’ Kyle said to Will, who was sat at the bar as the two lovers cleaned up before closing time.

‘We’re not gonna start a revolution over night, Kyle. Don’t worry. I won’t take him anywhere stupid.’

— — — — —

‘This is _definitely_ somewhere stupid, Will.’

Dan and Will stood outside an abandoned building that once belonged to the formerly mighty media company WWCOMMS.

Will shrugged. ‘The cameras aren’t on. People who used to work here almost never come back. It’s fun to raid the storage and explore in these buildings. We had a party on the top floor of this place once.’

Dan shivered. ‘What’s so interesting about an old news building though?’

‘The bodies,’ joked Will. ‘We don’t think we’ve found all their secret rooms yet. Gotta be some black market stuff left over.’

‘So we’re... hunting for drugs?’

‘I guess.’

Dan hugged himself, trying to hide his nervousness. Seeing the old building, even though it wasn’t the one he worked at, made him remember the days of being treated like trash at the company. The realisation that he could have been working just feet away from traffickers made him nauseous.

‘Gonna need a smoke of anything we find, I think...’ Dan mumbled.

The pair broke into the building, Dan following Will through a door broken in an exploration past.

‘Never seen you so skittish, Smith,’ observed Will as he flicked the power on on his torch.

Dan did likewise. ‘Just... worried about the cops, y’know? Especially ‘cause we’re here.’

‘There’s more to it though, isn’t there? Me and the other two hate the company, most people do now. We kinda always did. You seem... different.’

‘I used to work here, Will. Well, not _here_ , here, but, for them.’

Will stopped and Dan nearly bumped into him. ‘You... worked for them?’

‘Before you accuse me of anything, I knew jack shit. I reported stories nobody else wanted to cover. That’s how I ended up at the mansion the first time. It wasn’t the journalistic haven I thought it would be.’

Will smiled sadly. ‘Everyone thought they were so great. We all got fucked over in the end.’

A scuffle made the two men freeze and go silent.

‘What was that?’ whispered Dan gently.

Will shrugged in reply.

The pair heard muffled voices. Dan felt his heart skip a beat. He had already had a run-in with the company and it cost him a kidney.

‘ _Hide_ ,’ mouthed Will to Dan. Turning off their torches, they both ducked behind a desk each.

Dan looked at Will from across the room. ‘ _We are leaving_ ,’ he mouthed. He started to creep back to the door that they’d entered through. Will waited a few moments, thinking on his route.

Too focussed on his exit, Dan’s foot found itself standing on an old report. The sound of paper was deafening to him and the two men could hear the voices from the other room, and footsteps approaching.

Will made a run for it. Dan took a beat to register what happened before following suit, and the two men barely slid out of the building unseen.

— — — — —

Dan found himself shaking still when he arrived at Kyle’s place. As quietly as he could, he unlocked the door and changed into his pyjamas.

Kyle seemed to be asleep and Dan carefully slid under the covers besides his lover.

‘You weren’t out long,’ came the weary voice of Kyle.

‘... Yeah.’

Kyle gently kissed Dan’s temple as the older man rested his head on Kyle’s chest. ‘You alright?’

Dan shuddered and Kyle could feel it. ‘I’ll tell you in the morning. You can yell at me then.’

‘Alright. G’night, idiot.’

Kyle swiftly fell asleep, relaxed knowing that Dan was safe besides him. Dan, on the other hand, lay awake, feeling Kyle’s chest move gently up and down as his mind wandered through all the possible ways the night could have ended.


	9. Chapter 9

It was an unusual change of roles in which Kyle was almost blackout drunk and Dan was the responsible one.

A quiet night in the Chaos Planet mansion, just the five boys trying to gather their thoughts.

Kyle wanted none of the talk of politics and WWCOMMS and whatever he deemed bullshit, so he drank excessively. He was half-asleep and resting his head on Dan’s shoulder.

‘Hey... I love you...’ Kyle would mumble intermittently.

Dan would always smile and give a gentle ‘I love you too,’ back.

The drunken Kyle had confessed that he did actually trust the Chaos Planet guys, ‘even though those shirts are awful’.

‘You really shouldn’t drink so much,’ came the fatherly voice of Woody to the inebriated Kyle.

‘Shhh,’ slurred Kyle. ‘There is nowhere I would rather be...’

Dan laughed gently. ‘If I tell you that you said that in the Chaos Planet hide out tomorrow, you’ll kick me.’

‘No, idiot,’ Kyle slapped Dan on the arm, although there was no real power behind it. ‘I meant... with you... dumbass...’

Dan blushed when Will laughed softly at the pair.

— — — — —

He wasn’t sure when he’d fallen asleep, just that he had. Dan was roused by the sound of movement.

‘Ah, sorry mate,’ apologised Woody in a hushed voice when he saw Dan had stirred.

Kyle was still far gone, head lulled on Dan’s chest, his gentle snoring the only sound in the room. Will and Charlie were similarly passed out asleep.

‘Don’t worry,’ smiled Dan at Woody. Dan ran his fingers through his lover’s hair with one hand, and over his own short hair with the other.

‘You look happy.’

‘Never felt more comfortable. Friends and my partner, having a good ol’ drink.’

‘Shame the conversation was a bit of a dampener,’ laughed Woody slightly. Dan nodded, smiling.

Woody left the room to do whatever he needed and Dan sighed deeply. It’s true that he was incredibly content to be where he was, partying with friends and exploring the night, but he also missed the stability of a world before WWCOMMS was exposed as fucked up.

One constant, familiar feeling stayed with him throughout though. Kyle.

However that familiar presence was drooling on Dan’s shirt at that moment in time.

The city was still at 4am. Dan thought about how much he still wanted to explore all over the places now abandoned...

_‘... but only if Kyle’s with me.’_


End file.
